The Hand Of Fate
by Post It Lover
Summary: Dreams of a previous life and a lost love have plagued Yukimura Chizuru's mind for years. Would fate's hand be more gentle to her in this life? Or is it dealing a hard hand once more by placing the annoying Okita Souji into her life?
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** I have no rights whatsoever with regards to the ownership of the Hakuouki Characters, but the plot is my idea.

The Hand of Fate: Prologue

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Images flitted swiftly past her mind's eye. Her dreams tell of a previous life, haunted by the sadness of a lost love…

'_Do I look like I have some incurable disease?'_

'_You won't tell anyone won't you? If you plan to tell someone, I might have to kill you.'_

'_You shouldn't be involved with me anymore…'_

'_If that's what you've decided, then you can do whatever you like.'_

'_Chizuru-chan, thank you.'_

Her dreams weaved and twined, weaving a tapestry of her short life with him… A life so cruelly cut short by the knife called 'disease' and wielded by the fickle hand of fate…

'_Chizuru-chan, when the time comes that I must let you go and we must be parted, always remember that my heart will always belong to you.'_

'_I love you.'_

As he gently passed away in his sleep she tries to call out to him, but no sound comes from her mouth as she finds herself being dragged back into her reality, waking only to forget his face and his name while vividly remembering the piercing pain of losing him once more…

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Yukimura Chizuru woke up with a start, with beads of sweat slipping down from her forehead to her face.

"Ugh…it's that dream again."

After looking over at her bedside table clock, she decided to get out of bed and shower early so she wouldn't be late for her first day as a high school sophomore. After taking her shower, Chizuru gulped down her breakfast rather quickly, grabbed her shinai and school bag and made her way down to school.

"I wonder who that person was?" Chizuru voiced out her thoughts, which were definitely still occupied by the mysterious man. As she turned the corner into the school gates and made her way towards the kendo dojo, her thoughts strayed to the only thing she can remember about the man in her dreams—his smile. The man had such a gentle smile, or so Chizuru would like to think, because every time she tried to remember him, she can only picture his smile—gentle but pained at the same time.

"And he even said 'I love you'", she said out loud again, clearly remembering the last thing the man said, the scene where her dreams would always end and her visions of the man would be obscured once again.

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk." A voice interrupted her thoughts as she entered the dojo. "Walking absentmindedly and talking to yourself, _imagining_ that someone told you _"I love you",_ shouldn't you already be booking an appointement with the school shrink, Chizuru-chan? You've probably taken too many hits in the head from me, dont you think?"

Standing in the middle of the room was man dressed in his kendo bougu, holding his shinai over his shoulders with a smirk in his face.

"Great," Chizuru muttered. "Of all the people I could possibly see this early on this wonderful spring morning, it just had to be _you._"

"Heh…too bad for you then. I'm the school's top kendōka so I have to be here and practice."

Ōkita Souji, the bane of her existence, the only person to ever to get on her nerves, just had to be the one to interrupt her thoughts about that mysterious man.

Fate is a very fickle thing. And thus, little did Chizuru know that fate had already set into motion, its hand, and the loom that would weave a new tapestry and connect herself, the man in her dreams, and the boy named Okita Souji, together.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** My first Hakuouki fic and all I can say is…SOUJI! As you can see, I am an Okita Souji fan =P. I just love his character but I don't think the anime's plot did a lot to highlight his character. He's funny, mischievous, kind, a lil bit of a sadist O.o, but he's very devoted as well. I just had to do this. Any comments and rants are appreciated in the form of **reviews** ^-^


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I have no rights whatsoever with regards to the ownership of the Hakuouki Characters. However, I think I am entitled to fangirl on Souji, ne?

The Hand of Fate: Chapter 1

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The school bell rang loudly overhead, signaling the end of classes. It's been a week since the new school year started and the students of Makoto High gathered their things and started to make their way towards their respective clubs.

"Chizuru-chan!"

Chizuru looked up from her school bag and looked towards the door and saw her friend Senhime—Osen-chan for short, waving cheerfully at the hall.

"Osen-chan! How was your summer?" greeted Chizuru, as she tried to balance her school books to give Senhime a hug.

"It was great! How about you? Did you finally get anywhere with Hijikata-senpai?"

Chizuru blushed heavily as she thought of her crush. Hijikata Toshizo, two years her senior, has been Chizuru's next-door-neighbor for as long as she can remember, and they had gone to elementary school together. He was a very serious boy, quiet and somewhat bossy, as Chizuru had found out when she tried to make friends with him the day that he and his family moved to the house next to hers. But he always looked out for Chizuru at school.

She can remember the day that he saved her as if it were yesterday. She had just turned ten that year and she had been playing at the school sandbox one day when five bullies tried to take away her pail and her shovel from her. Chizuru, feeling very confident and being the impulsive and brave girl that she was, threw sand on one of the boys' faces. The boys pushed her to the ground and she saw one of the boys picking up her shovel and moving to throw it at her. Frightened out of her wits, Chizuru fainted, but not before she saw the outline of a boy grabbing the hand that held the shovel. When she came to that afternoon, she found herself in the school hospital and she saw Toshi-san sleeping on the chair beside her bed. The school nurse came and told her that he had taken her and another person, after the sand box incident, into the school clinic by himself. Toshi woke up and smiled a gentle smile and from then on, Chizuru wanted and wished that the man, who appeared in her dreams, to be him.

"Is he still as stiff and cranky and annoying as ever?" teased Senhime, knowing that she would get an entertaining reaction from her best friend.

"Oh shut up! Toshi-san isn't stiff! And he isn't cranky! He's just a man of few words that's all! And I wouldn't have him any other way!" Chizuru replied, as they made their way through the sakura-lined courtyard, heading towards the school dojo. "AND, if you want to talk about annoying, it isn't Toshi-san. It's my other neighbor. That cheeky, annoying, thinks-he's-so-popular, good-for-nothing playboy, that Sou—"

"Better hold your tongue Chizuru-chan or I'll have you do six laps around the dojo for misconduct."

Senhime didn't have to turn around to know whose voice drawled out the threat nor did she even have to turn and look at Chizuru to see how red and livid her face had become. As she sensed a very violent exchange between the two people in front of her, Senhime wisely chose to just quietly and stealthily move back and watch Okita-senpai's and Chizuru's interesting exchange at a safe distance.

"Souji, you idiot! Didn't your mom ever tell you not to eavesdrop on people?" fired Chizuru, her face flaming red at embarrassment from almost being caught bad-mouthing her childhood nemesis, who just also happened to be the captain of the kendo club.

"Eavesdropping is when one intentionally tries to listen in on your conversation. But when your voice blares louder than a concert speaker then I think it's not right to blame other people if they hear what you're talking about." Souji replied non-chalantly and continued to walk past Chizuru who turned even a darker shade of red at being accused of being louder than a speaker.

"Gah! I don't get you!" she suddenly blurted out, all the anger and frustration finally making their way out of her mouth. "Even though we've been neighbors since we were on diapers, why can't you ever be nice to me? Why can't you be like Toshi-san who always watches out for me?"

After waking for a couple more steps, Souji turned around, the wind blowing on his hair and obscuring his eyes. "But I have been watching over you Chizuru-chan." he gently said and as he did so he gave Chizuru a look that shook her to the core. A look so intense she couldn't help but feel hot and blush more fiercely than she had a while ago. The wind picked up and delicate sakura petals fluttered by and Souji started walking back towards her and with every step he took, his gaze intensified even further.

"The problem with you is that you're always looking at Toshi-san, so you never see how my eyes are only looking at you. My eyes are always trained on you and only on you Chizuru-chan, _always_." He breathed those last words softly, almost sensually to her ears and Chizuru was rooted to the spot, her breath caught somewhere in her body.

"So Chizuru, please," Souji whispered softly, as he gently pulled back from her ears to face her directly, his face a mere inch away from hers. "Please, please, make sure that your skirt doesn't blow high enough so that every time I look at you I see the pink granny panties that you like wearing to school. If I didn't know any better, I would think you were doing it on purpose and trying to seduce me." Souji finished. And as soon as Chizuru recovered from her shock, she looked and found that Souji had high-tailed out of the courtyard and had already entered the dojo.

"Souji! You pervert! You idiot! Wait till I get my hands on you!"

Chizuru ran as quickly as her legs would take her so she can take her revenge but as soon she entered the room, it was too late. Warm ups had already begun and Souji was already at the front shouting out instructions to the other kendōka.

"Yukimura-san!" barked Souji in his uniform. "Three minutes late! Three laps around the dojo, NOW!"

Chizuru could only give a scathing glare in response to Souji, who appeared to be trying to prevent a smile from breaking his façade. But when she made her towards the front of the dojo, near where he was standing, she was greeted by the only person who could lift her mood in an instant.

"Toshi-san!"

If she only hadn't been looking at Toshi, Chizuru would've seen the smile falter and completely disappear from Souji's face, only to be replaced by a dark expression-an expression of jealousy.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Phew! I got that done! Yay! Chizuru's too infatuated with Toshi to see Souji... Poor Souji=( Dont worry Souji, I'll make sure you win her in the end! (I'm not gonna make it easy though...)

On another note, Thank you for the reviews! They mean so much to me as they provide me with feedback and criticism. Special thanks handed out to **me (not myself but the name they left on the review was just 'me' I'm not being egoistic here=P) , O.o naruto, **and to **lalaland92. **More reviews please!^-^


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